Friday, October 29, 2010

Monáe is opening for Of Montreal, a band that I'm not as familiar with, but I hear puts on a killer live show. I am excitedly anticipating their combined performance for "Make The Bus," which is my favorite song off of her album.

Although her official video for "Tightrope" is great, I am still partial to her performance on Letterman, where she channels the mess out of some James Brown.

First Exposures is going on a field trip to the Mission Cultural Center to see their Dia De Los Muertos exhibit. The last time we did this trip, it was raining heavily, and I had to buy a pair of emergency TOMS after my original shoes were ruined. This time, I am prepared. This time, I have rainboots.

Dia De Los Muertos, 2008

Whit and I are flying to Vegas on Saturday evening, and coming back early Monday morning. Despite all my back and forth trips there, this will be the first time that I spend less than 36 hours in town. Um, "woooo Vegas, baby"?!?

The reason we are heading to Vegas is to celebrate my friend Josh Ellis's marriage to the presumably lovely Rosalie (whom I've not actually met yet). I'm excited to share in this event with Josh. Officially, their wedding date is Halloween, and we are allowed to wear costumes to the reception. I haven't yet picked one out yet, but am wavering between "Person of Color Barbie" and "Miss Atomic Bomb 1945." When I included Whit in the plans, I had thought I could be Yoshimi, and he could be a pink robot, but I don't think he's too keen on that idea.

Walter Reed was a U.S. Army physician who helped prove in 1900 that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes and not by contact with people who already had the disease. It's incredible to think, but the idea that diseases were spread by microorganisms only gained traction near the end of the 19th century.

Reed and his team conducted experiments at Camp Lazear in Cuba, and required human subjects to test different infection vectors. The team created a contract for the subjects to sign.

The documents take the form of a contract between individual volunteers and the Commission, represented by Reed. At least 25 years old, each volunteer explicitly consented to participate, and balanced the certainty of contracting yellow fever in the general population against the risks of developing an experimental case, followed by expert and timely medical care. The volunteers agreed to remain at Camp Lazear for the duration of the experiments, and as a reward for participation would receive $100 "in American gold," with an additional hundred-dollar supplement for contracting yellow fever. These payments could be assigned to a survivor, and the volunteers agreed to forfeit any remuneration in cases of desertion.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The bottom of the handle is actually not attached to the mug. It had detached during the bisque firing. I was told that the mug would be fine; just "don't put hot liquid in it" and "maybe use it as a pencil holder."

There are two glazes on this: fake ash (primary) and clear (secondary). Our fake ash glaze is not food safe, but I suppose it doesn't matter for a pencil holder.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Two years ago, if you had told me that I would be a person to willingly travel almost 1200 miles to taste hundreds of beers over a weekend, I would have said "save the cash and pass the Corona."

It's pretty impressive how much I've learned about beer over the last 18 months. And this coming from someone who had to learn to like beer via ubiquitous light lagers in Japan (which I still enjoy, lest you think that all this education has changed me).

I attached my first handle last night to the mug I threw on Monday. The handle was large. Whit says my mug looks like it has some junk in the trunk.

We'll see how I feel about this later, after it's been glazed; it just might be too bulky for my taste. I think I'll keep working on this (that is, making mugs with handles) for the quarter. I guess everyone knows what they're getting for Christmas.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The dedication ceremony of our new medical school occurred on September 29. Although I've been complaining a bit about some of the bugs that we've been encountering, it is a really exciting venture, and I'm happy to be a part of the new educational mission of the school.

Lots of fun things were planned for that day, but my favorite part was Sir Li Ka Shing's remarks to the group:

Today is the culmination of a journey that began decades ago. On a warm and beautiful afternoon back in 1982, I brought my freshman son, Victor, to Stanford. I was a proud parent as we strolled down the picturesque Palm Drive toward the Oval. It was a moment I will not forget -- my son was receiving a university education, something I could only dream of. And he was doing it at Stanford!

I can still recall, at one point in our walk, stopping for a moment, turning to him and saying: "This is the first time in my life that I feel true envy of your good fortune -- to have the opportunity to be a part of this great institution." It is an opportunity that countless students from all over the world have enjoyed -- not only to attend here, but to have their minds and spirits broadened through a rigorous fusing of intellect and imagination. Lives have been enriched here, ennobled with a sense of service. And service is the hallmark of a life well lived.

The elite students of this great university, who become elite leaders, are not content to be moralizing spectators. They are explores and discoverers search for, and finding solutions, to the great challenges of our complex world. They know the higher order of the ennobled human spirit, and they measure themselves by that standard.

I hope this spirit permeates Stanford. I know that on this campus I have experienced it first hand. After seeing Victor off that day, I wandered alone through the campus. At one point I stopped and knelt down to take a photograph of a beautiful western bluebird in the grass. I became so focused on the image of the bird through my viewfinder that only when I turned did I embarrassingly realize that I had blocked the path of dozens of students on their bicycles. But rather than rush me, many of them held their fingers to their lips, letting each other know to stop and remain quiet in an effort not to frighten the bird while I clicked the shutter.

Their smiles overwhelmed me then and will stay in my heart forever. The photograph of the western bluebird has long vanished, but the noble and gracious gesture of those students laid the foundation of my love for Stanford and the eventual project that we now celebrate. Today with the dedication of this building, I am now part of this great institution, and for that I am most happy and very honored.

I've been at Stanford for so long, I sometimes forget how it's seen by the rest of the world. I hope that Stanford now can live up to Stanford then.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

I hadn't posted about the First Exposures and 826 Valencia collaboration before, because I didn't have access to high-quality images, but my co-mentor Colin Smith took the images that the students made and magicked them into 45" by 65" posters. I believe the posters aren't up anymore (I saw a end date of September 27), but I still wanted to make a note of them, since the project was so amazing.

The project took place in Spring 2010. It involved the students, working in groups of 3 -- one from digital class, one from the film class, and one from 826 -- to choose a neighborhood and create a collaborative piece about it.

There were times when the partnership was a little challenging: the students from both programs didn't know each other, the culture of the programs were different, etc. Of course, the end results were incredible. Conflict creates the best art, right?

I'm taking an intermediate ceramics class at Stanford, which has been a nice way to do something simultaneously creative and meditative. Developing sheet film also involves those two things, but with ceramics, I can listen to music and be in the light.

My usual thing is to do short, squat bowls, but this quarter, we are starting out with mugs with handles (which I've never made before). I am also poor at making even walls all the way from the bottom, because I fear the piece collapsing. For the first week, I basically made two bowls, which were less stumpy than usual, but still bowls. Last night, I really tried to make something a bit closer to having a handle attached.

Bottom is still pretty thick, but I love trimming, so I will do the rest of my shaping at that stage. Will be pulling the handle, trimming the piece, and attaching both to each other on Wednesday if all goes well.